Biology and Traits: Conscientiousness Industriousness and Orderliness

PLASTICITY Extraversion

Assertiveness r = .47

Enthusiasm

Openness

Openness r = .35

Intelligence • • Average correlation between Big Five Correlation between Big Two r = .22

r = .24

Conscientiousness Industriousness r = .39

Orderliness

STABILITY

Emotional Stability Volatility r = .59

Withdrawal Agreeableness Politeness r = .44

Compassion

• Orderliness • • • • • • • • • • Leaves belongings around.

Likes order.

Keeps things tidy.

Follows a schedule.

Is not bothered by messy people.

Wants everything to be “just right.” Is not bothered by disorder.

Dislikes routine.

Sees that rules are observed.

Wants every detail taken care of.

• Industriousness • • • • • • • • • • Carries out his/her plans.

Wastes time.

Finds it difficult to get down to work.

Messes things up.

Finishes what he/she starts.

Doesn't put his/her mind on the task at hand.

Gets things done quickly.

Always knows what he/she is doing.

Postpones decisions.

Is easily distracted.

Conscientiousness: The Mystery

• No theoretical model • No neuropsychological model • • No psychological model No pharmacological model

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex?

• No correlation with DLPFCA function • Description: Conscientiousness • Tendency to be planful, organized, task- and goal-oriented, and self-controlled, and to delay gratification and follow norms and rules (Roberts et al. 2009) •

Affect/Emotion

• • Strongly related to life satisfaction and “happiness” • DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 197–229.

• Heller, D., Watson, D., & Ilies, R. (2004). The dynamic process of life satisfaction. Journal of Personality, 74, 1421–1450.

Conscientiousness related to depression • Guilt: Fayard, J.V et al. (2012). Uncovering the affective core of conscientiousness. Journal of Personality, 80, 1-32.

• “Study 1 used meta-analysis to show that Conscientiousness was associated with specific emotions and overall negative affect but was most strongly associated with guilt. Conscientiousness was negatively related to guilt experience but positively related to guilt proneness.”

Orderliness

• Conservatism • Along with low openness • Disgust Sensitivity • Preference for order and tradition • Not egalitarianism • Harsh judgements of moral transgression • “Behavioral Immune System”

• Disgust is considered to be one of the basic human emotions, defined by a strong revulsion and desire to withdraw from an eliciting stimulus or event ( Darwin, 1872 ; Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 2000 ).

• Physically, disgust is accompanied by a distinct facial expression involving constriction of the oral and nasal cavities ( Ekman & Friesen, 2003 ; Vrana, 1993 ). • Evolutionary models of disgust propose that this emotion evolved to help us avoid contaminated or harmful foods ( Rozin & Fallon, 1987 ), or other potential sources of disease such as sexual contact ( Oaten, Stevenson, & Case, 2009 ). • In addition to its role in directly helping to expel harmful foods from the body, disgust also forms an important component of the behavioral immune system, the suite of psychological mechanisms that aid in the detection and avoidance of potential contaminants before they can make contact with the body ( Schaller & Duncan, 2007 ; Schaller & Park, 2011 ).

• Although disgust may have its origins in the protection against physical contamination, a number of studies have implicated disgust responses in moral decision-making. • Inducing disgust responses, whether via a foul odor, a disgusting work environment, or recalling a disgusting experience, led individuals to assign harsher punishments to others who had committed moral transgressions ( Schnall, Haidt, Clore, & Jordan, 2008 ; Wheatley & Haidt, 2005 ). • Harsher moral judgments can even be induced following the consumption of a bitter drink ( Eskine, Kacinik, & Prinz, 2011 unfair treatment in an economic game ( ). In addition, the same disgust-related facial expressions are observed in response to unpleasant tastes, disgusting photographs, and receiving Chapman, Kim, Susskind, & Anderson, 2009 ).

• • • • • Concerns about cleanliness and feelings of disgust have likewise been related to political attitudes. Situational reminders of the importance of physical cleanliness, such as asking participants to wipe their hands with antiseptic wipes, tend to increase self reported political conservatism ( Helzer & Pizarro, 2011 ). Such a finding is consistent with the notion that purity tends to be valued more highly by conservatives than by liberals ( Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009 ). Individuals who report being disgusted more easily also tend to hold more conservative political views on topics including abortion, gay marriage, tax cuts, and affirmative action ( Bloom, 2009 ). Inbar, Pizarro, Iyer, & Haidt, in press ; Inbar, Pizarro, & In addition to the effects that have emerged when using self-reported disgust sensitivity, more conservative political views have also been associated with stronger physiological reactivity to disgusting images ( Alford, & Hibbing, 2011 ).

Smith, Oxley, Hibbing,

• • In particular, a large literature has converged on the notion that there are two core dimensions of conservative political ideology: resistance to change and tolerance of inequality ( Jost, 2006 ; Jost, Federico, & Napier, 2009 ; Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003 ; Jost, Nosek, & Gosling, 2008 ). • Resistance to change reflects the extent to which people wish to maintain the status quo, while tolerance of inequality reflects the acceptance of an unequal distribution of resources and opportunities within society. These two dimensions appear roughly aligned with social and economic conservatism, as expressed in the constructs of Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation, respectively ( Birum, 2002 ). Duckitt, Wagner, Du Plessis, &

• • • • These core facets of conservatism are also closely related to the two higher-order value dimensions described in moral foundations theory, which reflect preferences for order and tradition on the one hand, and preferences for egalitarianism on the other ( Graham et al., 2009 ; Graham et al., 2011 ). Importantly, the motivational bases of these two dimensions appear to vary independently from one another, with an individual’s overall political attitudes on a left-right spectrum emerging from their relative balance. These motives are also strongly rooted in basic personality characteristics, such that preferences for order and tradition are associated with higher levels of Orderliness (an aspect of Conscientiousness) and Politeness (an aspect of Agreeableness), as well lower levels of Openness/Intellect; in contrast, preferences for egalitarianism are uniquely associated with Compassion, an aspect of Agreeableness (Caprara, Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, & Barbaranelli, 2006; Carney, Jost, Gosling, & Potter, 2008 DeYoung, Xu, & Peterson, 2010 ; Jost, 2006) ; Hirsh,

• • • political conservatism can be thought of as a “social immune system”, reflecting the extension of pathogen avoidance mechanisms to the integrity of the social system (Rozin et al., 2000). Just as the behavioral immune system has been conceptualized as helping to maintain the purity and integrity of an individual body ( Schaller & Park, 2011 too may the same pathogen avoidance system help to maintain the abstract integrity of the social order. ), so In particular, the social immune system would help to maintain order by suppressing any actions or individuals that deviate from a group’s accepted social traditions.

• It has been reported, for instance, that regions with higher levels of disease prevalence tend to be associated with higher levels of social conformity ( Murray, Trudeau, & Schaller, 2011 ) and autocratic rule ( Thornhill, Fincher, & Aran, 2009 ). • • • Individuals who feel more vulnerable to disease likewise report higher levels of ethnocentrism and xenophobia ( Navarrete & Fessler, 2006 ). Such basic concerns about pathogen avoidance may thus contribute to the desire for order and tradition among conservatives, along with the harsh moral judgments associated with violations of the social order. In particular, severe moral judgments may be a key mechanism by which the social immune system (instantiated in conservative practices and policies) aims to eliminate exposure to deviant social elements that may increase the risk of pathogen exposure.

Parasite Stress Hypothesis

• According to a "parasite stress" hypothesis, authoritarian governments are more likely to emerge in regions characterized by a high prevalence of disease-causing pathogens. Recent cross-national evidence is consistent with this hypothesis, but there are inferential limitations associated with that evidence. We report two studies that address some of these limitations, and provide further tests of the hypothesis.

• Study 1 revealed that parasite prevalence strongly predicted cross national differences on measures assessing individuals' authoritarian personalities, and this effect statistically mediated the relationship between parasite prevalence and authoritarian governance. The mediation result is inconsistent with an alternative explanation for previous findings. To address further limitations associated with cross-national comparisons,

• Study 2 tested the parasite stress hypothesis on a sample of traditional small-scale societies (the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample). Results revealed that parasite prevalence predicted measures of authoritarian governance, and did so even when statistically controlling for other threats to human welfare. (One additional threat—famine—also uniquely predicted authoritarianism.)

• Together, these results further substantiate the parasite stress hypothesis of authoritarianism, and suggest that societal differences in authoritarian governance result, in part, from cultural differences in individuals' authoritarian personalities.

Table 2. Results from analyses on the Standard Cross Cultural Sample (Study 2): Zero-order correlations between 12-item index of authoritarian governance, two measures of parasite stress, and three measures assessing other threats to health and welfare.

Murray DR, Schaller M, Suedfeld P (2013) Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism. PLoS ONE 8(5): e62275. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062275

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0062275

Hitler

Along with his plans for the Welthauptstadt Germania ("world capital Germania"), Albert Speer made the plans for the world's largest stadium which was to be located on the rally grounds. Derived from the Panathenaic Stadium of Athens,[7] it would have offered 400,000 seats. It was to get the shape of a horseshoe; planned dimensions: length: 800 m, width: 450 m, height: 100 m, building area 350,000 m².

The laying of the foundation stone was on 9 July 1937. It was to be finished for the party congress in 1945. In 1938, the construction began with the excavation. It was stopped in 1939, but during the whole war, the casting pit had to be kept dry from entering ground water. After the war, the northern half of the pit filled up with the water and is today called Silbersee (silver lake), the southern half was used to deposit the debris of the destroyed downtown Nuremberg. (Wikipedia)

DER JUDE ALS WELTPARASIT

•

"...the people of the world will recognize the Jew as World Parasite and there will be a time when there will be one united front of all people against the Jewish World Parasite.“

•

The pamphlet ends: "And humanity will be freed from the most severe illness from which it suffered for thousands of years."

•

Hitler's Ideology: Embodied Metaphor, Fantsay, and History

• Richard Koenigsberg

Festliches Nurnberg – short 1937 propaganda film chronicling the Nazi rallies in Nuremberg in 1936 and 1937 (director: Hans Wiedemann)

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